Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Just prior to the plaintiffs resting their case late Monday afternoon, HomeServices of America , one of the three remaining defendants in the commission lawsuit , filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law. In his video deposition, King said that Keller Williams does not have an anti-trust policy. million real estate licensees in the U.S.,

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Law Agents Realtors Contracts 459

Housing Wire

AUGUST 1, 2024

But it will be their sellers who make the decision on an offer of compensation to a buyer broker. In the agreement, sellers have the option to choose to pay their listing broker an exact dollar amount, a percentage of the gross purchase price of the property or an undefined “Other.”

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Sellers Buyers Agents Law 448

Housing Wire

JANUARY 28, 2025

property rights are established under state rather than federal law, making the shift to a centralized, national land registration system unworkable without a significant rewrite of private property law. Anyone undertaking this title review must first establish that the seller has ownership of the property.

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Insurance Legal Government Real Estate 418

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Real estate agents and real estate brokers are both licensed real estate professionals who can assist buyers and sellers, but you should be aware of some key differences and state-specific distinctions. A real estate agent is a licensed professional who represents buyers or sellers in real estate transactions. Let’s dive in!

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Real Estate Real Estate Agent Agents Brokerage 448

Appraisal Buzz

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

This data provides meaningful insight into the true impact of these crimes targeting American homebuyers and sellers, who are already under stress in what is the most challenging housing market in recent history. Many homebuyers and sellers simply dont know that wire fraud is a thing. But hold on, wait a minute.

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Real Estate Real Estate Agent Sellers Agents 363

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

” The resort network will provide agents and clients in these markets with additional support, as buyers and sellers operating in these places often expect a higher quality of service from their agents. There’s much more to consider — like insurance regulations or local zoning laws — making having an expert in this space crucial.”

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Agents Marketing Luxury Properties Real Estate 370

Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2023

In such an environment, buyers may feel pressure to bypass steps in the transaction to make their bid more attractive to the seller, but they should be wary that taking shortcuts can expose them to fraud. Secret Service reported a steep rise in seller impersonation in an advisory it issued this year. We can reverse this trend.

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Sellers Real Estate Agent Real Estate Insurance 370

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Frazier also testified that the average commission at ReeceNichols is 2.75% for both buyer and seller agents. According to Frazier, homebuyers working with ReeceNichols agents sign a buyer agreement that if the seller doesn’t pay the buyer agent’s fees, then the buyer will pay the fee themselves. They were guidelines.

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Law Agents Brokerage Buyers 435

Housing Wire

MAY 26, 2023

Secret Service , notified the title industry of a rise in what is known as vacant lot fraud, or seller impersonation fraud. “We We started to hear a lot about seller impersonation fraud early on in the year,” Tyler Adams, the CEO of CertifID, said. “We Oftentimes this leads to the discovery of vacant lots. million, according to NAR.

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Sellers Real Estate Realtors Real Estate Agent 397

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

And the emergency needs of Southern California residents whove been displaced have law enforcement officials on the lookout for those who seek to benefit financially by overcharging for homes. State law prohibits price increases of more than 10% on goods or services that were being sold prior to an emergency declaration going into effect.

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Real Estate Agent Real Estate Agents Law 283

Housing Wire

JANUARY 21, 2025

On Friday, counsel for the plaintiffs filed a memorandum of law in support of the plaintiffs motion to preliminary approve their settlement agreement. Plaintiffs respectfully submit that the practice changes embodied in the MLS PIN settlement benefit home sellers in Massachusetts as discussed above.

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Sellers Buyers Realtors Law 370

Lamacchia Realty

JANUARY 10, 2025

New Massachusetts Law Addresses Home Inspection Waivers: What Buyers and Sellers Should Know A new law passed by the Massachusetts Legislature will soon regulate buyers and sellers options around conducting a home inspection when purchasing a home. The second part of the statute also puts restrictions on the seller.

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Inspection Law Sellers Buyers 69

Housing Wire

APRIL 1, 2025

On Tuesday, at the preliminary approval hearing for defendant MLS Property Information Networks (MLS PIN) settlement, Judge Saris r efused to grant preliminary approval to the settlement as the plaintiffs and defendants were hoping to expand the class to include commercial property sellers and mobile home sellers.

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Sellers Real Estate Buyers Realtors 275

Housing Wire

MARCH 18, 2025

In the article, Ketchmark said that Realtor organizations need to be aware of the fact that not only will our law firm and other attorneys be looking at [CCP], but the eyes of the world are upon them, and its time to do the right thing and let homeowners make decisions about their houses and not a bureaucratic organization.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 31, 2025

“The Court correctly applied the law and properly denied the Gibson plaintiffs motion to intervene and/or transfer,” Bryan Knight, the plaintiffs’ attorney in the Hooper case, said in an email to HousingWire. Cohen rejected the motion to intervene in the Hooper case. million in November.

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Brokerage Real Estate Realtors Law 336

Appraisal Buzz

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Under a lease-purchase arrangement, the property seller also acts as the landlord. The seller transfers the deed to the buyer once the buyer obtains a mortgage to purchase the home. For example, the sellers, usually also the landlords, are generally responsible for keeping the property safe and livable for tenants.

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Landlords Tenants Contracts Law 221

Housing Wire

MARCH 12, 2025

It accused NAR and several major real estate brokerages of conspiring to artificially inflate the commissions of agents representing sellers, a violation of federal antitrust law. Gibson is a class-action lawsuit filed by the same attorney who handled the now-settled Sitzer-Burnett case.

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Legal Brokerage Real Estate Advertising 361

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

But the policy may still present a legal issue, as it requires listing agents to make an offer compensation, even if that offer of compensation is in fact nothing ($0), law professors said. Instead, the trade group will require the home sellers to pay the buyer’s agent commissions directly. As of Jan.

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Legal Law Sellers Real Estate 468

Housing Wire

APRIL 15, 2024

The GSEs noted that this guidance was not an update to their selling guides but a clarification on the treatment of seller-paid real estate agent fees. Moving forward, the GSEs say that if these fees continue to be “customarily paid by the property seller according to local convention, they will not be subject to financing concessions limits.”

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Buyers Agents Real Estate Agent Sellers 532

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Many of these laws target specific types of real estate deemed crucial to national security, such as farmland or property near military installations, while other laws apply more broadly to all types of land. Laws should also be clear on the role title insurance professionals play in facilitating transactions with foreign owners.

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Law Real Estate Insurance Legal 435

Housing Wire

MARCH 19, 2025

At the time of issuing its second CID, the DOJ stated that it believed that the policy restricts home-seller choices and precludes competition from new listing services. Miller believes that agents who push sellers to use private listing networks are not doing their fiduciary duty.

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Realtors Legal Sellers Law 222

Appraisal Buzz

FEBRUARY 17, 2025

Home sellers are no longer liable for paying the realtor costs for both the buyer and the seller as a result of a federal case. Nine percent, or almost one in 10, were completely unaware of the commission laws. Nearly half (45%) are prepared to pay more than $20,000.

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Marketing Real Estate Investing Realtors 286

Housing Wire

AUGUST 8, 2024

The suit, which is named after its plaintiff Scott Davis, was filed in late May in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Davis by attorneys at Korein Tillery LLC , the same law firm representing the plaintiffs in the Batton suits. All other state law claims must therefore be dismissed.” Illinois, 431 U.S.

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Law Real Estate Realtors Buyers 446

Housing Wire

AUGUST 22, 2024

Wood, who is overseeing the Batton suits, ruled that the “plaintiff lacks antitrust standing to pursue this claim because he is not an efficient enforcer of the antitrust laws.” “Not home sellers) pursuing the same injunctive relief that Plaintiff seeks here,” the filing states.

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Law Real Estate Agent Real Estate Brokerage 434

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 31, 2023

One option is that NAR and the MLSs can no longer require cooperative compensation, but listing agents and their sellers can still offer the buyer broker compensation if they so choose. It is a situation where buyers need to pay their own agents and sellers have to pay their agent separately?”

Real Estate 497

Real Estate Landlords Sellers Design 497

Housing Wire

AUGUST 13, 2024

In these contracts – also known as “land contracts” or “bond for deed” –the seller retains the legal title to a home until the borrower completes all the payments, leading to some “traps,” according to the CFPB. Home prices are usually inflated, inspections are not made, and loans have high interest rates and balloon payments. “The

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Contracts Mortgage Law Sellers 482

Housing Wire

JULY 1, 2024

In its statement of interest, the DOJ claims that the changes MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) proposed for its commission rule “still gives sellers and their listing brokers a role in setting compensation for buyers’ brokers. … When sellers make such offers, buyer brokers need not compete on price to attract buyers.’”

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Buyers Law Sellers Advertising 431

Housing Wire

MARCH 31, 2022

Meek did something big about this last year, shuttling through the Oregon legislature a law that bans “all non-customary documents” from prospective buyer to seller in a real estate deal. As Inman News first reported , the Washington state legislature mulled a narrower version of the Oregon law. Oregon State Rep.

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Law Real Estate Legal Sellers 418

Housing Wire

MARCH 27, 2024

Rule 23(b)(3) requires that the court “find that ‘questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members,’ and that a class action is the ‘superior’ method of adjudication of the controversy. HomeServices of America still has a writ of certiorari out with the U.S.

Law 459

Law Sellers Realtors Contracts 459

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Just hours after securing a victory for his home seller clients in the landmark Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit, Michael Ketchmark, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, filed another class action antitrust lawsuit against some of the real estate industry’s biggest players, in U.S. District Court for Western Missouri.

Real Estate 448

Real Estate Brokerage Sellers Law 448

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

In May 2022, the Florida Legislature introduced a new condominium safety law, which mandates more rigorous inspections and stronger financial reserves for HOAs. Before the new law was enforced, many condo associations were investing their reserves in government-insured instruments, sacrificing their liquidity to generate a return.

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HOA Law Insurance New Listings 501

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 24, 2024

A referral estate referral occurs when a licensed agent or broker passes along a prospective buyer or seller to another licensed agent to handle a transaction. The receiving agent becomes the buyer or seller’s primary point of contact and representative, and the referring agent receives a referral fee if a transaction closes.

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Real Estate Real Estate Agent Agents Clients 433

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a claim made by the plaintiffs under a federal antitrust law. But Wood, who is also overseeing the Moehrl commission lawsuit , preserved nearly all of the plaintiffs’ claims under state antitrust laws (with exceptions in Tennessee and Kansas).

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Realtors Brokerage Real Estate Law 435

Housing Wire

APRIL 30, 2024

Additionally, the FAQ states that an agent is not working with a buyer if they are working only as an agent or subagent of the seller, or if the MLS participant is only performing ministerial acts without the expectation of being paid for these acts. It notes that the compensation must be “objectively ascertainable and not open-ended.” “For

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Buyers Open Houses Sellers Agents 488

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 12, 2023

A home seller plaintiff in California filed an antitrust lawsuit on Friday in U.S. In a competitive market, the seller would pay nothing to the buyer broker, who would instead be paid by the buyer (their client), and the total commission paid by the seller would be set at a level to compensate only the seller’s broker,” the complaint states.

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Realtors Sellers Real Estate Buyers 476

Housing Wire

AUGUST 19, 2024

Several real estate groups recently criticized the Consumer Federation of America’s support for uncoupled buyer and seller agent real estate commissions, writing in HousingWire that, “CFA has seemingly lost sight of its core purpose advocating for those most in need of consumer protection.”

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Real Estate Sellers Buyers Agents 459

Housing Wire

MARCH 22, 2024

1, 2024 , Washington state’s agency law requires agents to have a written agreement with buyers (as well as sellers) to spell out the exact scope of the services provided by the agent, as well as the compensation the client has agreed to pay them in return. As of Jan. It is kind of like dating,” Sax said. “So,

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Buyers Contracts Real Estate Agents 497